Storms containing hail are a common occurrence in Wisconsin, with a few or many cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) growers being affected every year. Growers usually apply fungicides immediately following hail events to prevent fruit rot, despite a lack of research to support this practice. We conducted field trials in 2010 and 2011 to address the question of whether applying fungicides to injured fruit reduces fruit rot incidence (% rotten fruit). Hail damage was simulated by forcibly projecting pea gravel into cranberry beds using a mist-blower sprayer modified for this purpose, and the fungicides azoxystrobin or copper hydroxide were applied to fruit immediately after applying gravel. Fruit rot incidence and yield were evaluated within 2 weeks prior to commercial harvest in late September and early October. Fruit rot incidence was greater (P ≤ 0.05) and yield was lower (P < 0.05) in plots treated with gravel than in the nontreated control plots in six of seven trials. Fungicides did not reduce fruit rot incidence (P ≥ 0.05) in gravel-treated plots compared to the nontreated control in six of seven trials. However, in a trial conducted on relatively immature berries, fruit rot incidence in gravel-treated plots treated with azoxystrobin was less (P = 0.0103) than fruit rot incidence in gravel-treated plots receiving no fungicide treatment. In that same trial, fruit rot incidence was not reduced (P = 0.1243) in gravel-treated plots treated with copper hydroxide compared to gravel-treated plots that were not treated with fungicide. Results suggest that under most circumstances, if cranberries are damaged by hail, it is unlikely that an application of fungicide will reduce the amount of fruit rot at the time of harvest.

Cranberry fruit rot is an economically important disease complex comprised of as many as 15 different fungi that destroy cranberries in the field and/or after harvest. We evaluated fungicides in six field trials over 3 years for their ability to reduce the incidence of cranberry fruit rot and for their specificity in controlling six principal pathogens in the complex: Coleophoma empetri, Colletotrichum acutatum, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Phomopsis vaccinii, Phyllosticta vaccinii, and Physalospora vaccinii. Fruit rot incidence and efficacy of fungicides varied greatly among replicate plots within trials and among trials, often making it difficult to discern significant differences among treatments. However, in general, the newer strobilurin and sterol demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicides were at least as effective as the industry standards, chlorothalonil and mancozeb. An exception was the DMI fungicide fenbuconazole, which was ineffective in three of five trials. Compared to other fungicides, fenbuconazole was weak in controlling Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, which along with Coleophoma empetri, dominated among fungi isolated from rotten berries. The results are being used to develop disease management programs that control the key fruit rot pathogens with reduced reliance on environmentally risky and potentially carcinogenic fungicides. Accepted for publication 21 January 2014. Published 14 March 2014.

Many fungal species contribute to the cranberry fruit rot disease complex, the most devastating disease problem of cranberry crops, but the most significant economic losses can be attributed to a subset of five to seven species. Identifying these pathogens requires rotten cranberries to be culture on different microbiological media, where colony appearance differs. The objective of this report is to provide a photographic identification guide for each of the eight principal fruit rot pathogens when grown on different microbiological media. Accepted for publication 17 April 2013. Published 29 July 2013.

Filled with caustic statements on artificial plant breeding and florist flowers, John Ruskin's botanical essay collection, Proserpina (1875–86), advances a cogent argument against commercial floriculture and, by extension, the commodification of vegetal life. However, the eco-political stakes of this text have received limited attention. Past studies have primarily interpreted Proserpina as a testament to Ruskin's disquiet about Darwinism and as a memorial to his late love, Rose La Touche. In this article, I argue that beneath these scientific and personal imperatives, Proserpina urges readers to resist the consumption of floral commodities engineered by Victorian nurserymen and florists. My reading draws together the history of nineteenth-century flower breeding with recent inquiries from the field of critical plant studies in order to illuminate how Ruskin's botanical prose dovetails with present-day debates on vegetal ethics. Flower-breeding motifs figure prominently in a series of letters written for Proserpina by Rose's mother, Maria La Touche, whose contributions to this book have long been overlooked. Analyzing Proserpina's floricultural subtext will not only recover La Touche's letters from the shadow of Ruskin's love life but also underscore an unexplored facet of Ruskin's antipathy toward Darwin, who celebrated florist flowers in his own botanical writings.

This essay analyzes the understudied practice of collecting, marketing, and displaying colonial plant commodities as garden ornaments in nineteenth‐century Britain. From the early modern period onward, British garden writers discussed tobacco, sugarcane, coffee, tea, and other colonial crops in their books and magazines, often citing colonial agriculture as a point of interest to curious gardeners. As I will argue, this mode of collecting and aestheticizing plants discloses the deep ambivalence of the British horticultural press toward the realities of plantation agriculture. Building on previous analyses of plants and empire, I show how the cultivation of tobacco in nineteenth‐century flower gardens contributed to a broader mediation of Britain's colonial past in horticultural literature. Paying attention to this collecting trend will not only recover an overlooked chapter in the history of British horticulture, but also show how nineteenth‐century garden writing operated as a space for transmitting (and manipulating) narratives about colonial agriculture.